For the first time in history, more people live in cities than in the countryside. And one in every three urban residents lives in a slum, in housing constructed of cheap or found materials, plywood, plastic tarpaulin, corrugated tin, mud and wattle, and scrap metal. Dispossessed relates stories about people living on the fringes of Manila, Nairobi, Mexico City, Bangkok, and Cairo. Slum residents talk about their fears and their struggles, as well as their hopes and joys. Dispossessed also explores the complex causes of our world’s rapid urbanization and its affects on poor nations and cities in the global South, and it describes solutions to poverty and insecurity that some local residents and agencies are pursuing.

by Mark Kramer

ISBN: 1-57075-658-9

“By leading us into the homes and hearts of urban slum dwellers, Mark Kramer also opens up to us the complex histories of nations and their relationships in a global world. the stories are disturbing. But they give us hope for a better world.”   -
Most Reverend Luis Antonio Tagle, Bishop of Imus, Philippines